Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Street Fighter IV - CHUN-LI!

The First Lady of Fighting Games - Street Fighter IV: Round 2 - NECA 2009
There are a lot of subjectively-awarded titles bestowed to female characters in pop culture. Wonder Woman is often dubbed the most iconic comic book heroine. Lum has been given a similar title in the anime/manga world. She-Ra is always ranked high in American cartoon culture. And Xena and Buffy will forever be sparring for the live-action title. The video game genre has a few impressive contenders (I'm talking about you, Lara) but Chun-Li usually wins the title among gaming aficionados. Chun-Li first appeared in 1991's Street Fighter II with the notable distinction of being the first playable female in a fighting game. Since then she has been in over 20 games, tons of comics, cartoons, and even live action film. Not to mention a lot of merchandising. She may very well be one of the most merchandised female characters in the action figure market.. I would guess 5th (after Wonder Woman, Catwoman, Invisible Woman, and Storm). NECA is a pretty fantastic company. I have yet to hold a figure of theirs in my hands and not be amazed. This figure doesn't disappoint. Let's check her out in detail below.

This version of Chun-Li takes her token exaggerated leg muscles and ramps them up to a new extreme that we haven't seen represented in her toys yet. At first I found the giant legs off-putting, but they've really grown on me and now I think she's just all kinds of awesome. It makes me think of how Yvonne Craig as Batgirl in the 60's Batman TV Series wasn't allowed to punch, only kick (because, you know, punching was unladylike for her and emasculating to the men). I feel like the designers of Chun-Li took that notion of kicking being the only acceptable form of female violence and turned it on its head. Like I said, awesome.

One thing I love about this character is her classic, unchanging outfit. The blue qipao with ribboned oxhorned hair and spiked wristbands are unmistakeably Chun-Li.

One amazing this about this figure is the size and weight of her legs. They give her a very low center of gravity and enable some awesome posing potential.

Yeah, I always felt the SOTA Chun-Li was too lanky for the character. It's a tempting line though because it was SO much more complete than the Neca line. It's crazy that the shelves here are constantly restocked with Neca Variants, but they can't put out a wave 3.